High Profile: Bobby Green: Hampton Chief Grew Up With 'Fire In His Blood'

July 19, 1999|By DAVID CHERNICKY Daily Press

HAMPTON — Fire manuals share the bookcase in Bobby Green's City Hall office with framed photographs of his wife and grandchildren. A ceramic figurine of a firefighter pulling hose across a rock pile rests on one of the shelves, and miniature fire trucks are displayed throughout the room.

Indeed, firefighting has been in Green's blood since he was a kid, and now he is chief of one of the largest departments in the region.

The back yard of his boyhood home bordered the Phoebus fire station, and Green joined the volunteer company when he was 16. Since Hampton hired him in 1973, Green has steadily advanced through the ranks and succeeded Chief Greg Cade last year.

Since then, members of the department have widely praised the first homegrown chief in nearly 20 years.

"He communicates well with everyone and is sincere," said Fire Lt. Tom Richardson. "He has no political agendas. Since he's been chief, we have received more hands-on training than ever before. Bobby's first concern is what is best for the fire service."

Richardson said Green's local ties are a definite asset.

"The other chiefs, because they were outsiders, had a giant learning curve," he said. "It took them two or three years to understand and learn the ropes. So they did not get off to a good start. Bobby knows the city, the people and the fire service."

One of the issues that dogged some of the earlier chiefs was the tension between career or paid firefighters and volunteers. Green credits his predecessor, Cade, for easing some of those differences.

Hampton has a combination paid and volunteer department. Six of the city's 10 fire stations have volunteer companies.

Cade resigned last August to become Virginia Beach's fire chief, leaving City Manager George Wallace with the task of finding a successor.

"My first inclination was to do a national search, but people inside and outside the department were telling me I should look at this person," Wallace said. "The parting chief also told me to give Bobby a good look."

He did, and after a meeting with Green last summer, Wallace had an interim chief.

"The rest is history," Wallace said. "Everybody endorsed him and embraced him."

Charlie Burgess, a retired battalion chief, remembers when Green was a rookie firefighter.

Burgess said the alarm sounded at 3 a.m. one morning and all the men piled into the fire truck and headed out. Bobby wasn't among them and Burgess figured the young fireman had slept through the alarm.

"I was about to pull out when someone knocked on the car window," said Burgess. "It was Bobby. He asked, 'Can I ride with you, chief?' "

Burgess said he laughed and the two of them headed off to the fire.

"Bobby is like me," Burgess said. "He always has a smile on his face."

Green speaks about his former boss with the same reverence. He attributes many of his own qualities and skills to Burgess.

"He motivated people by making you feel you worked with him, not for him," Green said. "This is a very good department, and I am proud of it. To come up through the ranks and be able to sit at this desk was something I never dreamt."

But the truth is that Green is much more comfortable on his feet rather than strapped to a desk. In a recent 90-minute interview, he never sat down.

Green calls himself "a walk-around chief," and likes to visit the firehouses and show up at a fire or other emergency.

"I told my people they could see me all hours of the night," said Green. "I go not to command, but to see what is going on. When you have to develop policies and procedures, you have to understand what is going on."

On this day, Green's shift begins with a breakfast meeting of city officials and neighborhood representatives.

A dispatcher's voice breaks over Green's radio with a call about a 5-year-old girl having a possible seizure. The operator dispatches emergency medical personnel from the Mercury Central Station on Marcella Road. After checking the girl, an ambulance takes her to Sentara Hampton General Hospital.

Green has made a career of handling these types of calls and nearly every kind of emergency. The fire department operates with a budget of $9.4 million, which pays the salaries of 224 employees and operates 10 fire stations. The city also relies heavily on a contingent of 400-plus volunteers, many of whom completed the same training and certification requirements as the professional firefighters.

In a few weeks, Green will complete his master's degree in public administration at Troy State University. He has been teaching fire administration at Hampton University for six years.

Some observers might view Green's service to a single department as a drawback and suggest that his vision for the company is limited. Green's not buying it.

"Even though my entire career has been in Hampton, I learned the different philosophies from the chiefs who preceded me," Green says.

"The last three fire chiefs came from California, Colorado and Maryland, respectively."

David Chernicky can be reached at 247-4743 or by e-mail at dchernicky@dailypress.com